South Northumberland were not the only ones hoping Durham’s first visit to Gosforth was the start of something.

Following a disappointing end to the Twenty20 Cup with back-to-back losses in the new 50-over competition, the Riversiders pitched up in Newcastle tired and at a pretty low ebb.

Yet, like England skipper Alastair Cook, Mark Stoneman turned his team’s fortunes around by sorting out his own.

The left-hander had only made double-figure scores twice in his previous nine limited-overs matches.

Here, he hit his first half-century of the white-ball season to lead the team to a five-wicket win over Warwickshire.

The man they call “Rocky” just hopes it is not a flash in the pan.

He said: “People go on about team spirit and things like that but the culture at Durham is no one is allowed to feel too sorry for themselves for too long.

“When we are at training – we took a bit of stick on social media the other day for playing golf – we are working hard.

“Hopefully, this is the start of a good run.”

Most importantly, Durham did the two things they have not done in limited-overs cricket this season – start well with the bat and finish strongly with the ball.

After John Hastings’ superb death bowling restricted Warwickshire to 264 all out, Stoneman and Phil Mustard put on 88 for the first wicket.

Stoneman, who did not get back from Kent until 6.30 on Wednesday morning, added: “That has been our problem for a while in white-ball cricket, getting that solid first partnership and getting through the powerplay without losing any wickets.

“It is advantage to the opposition if you are three down in the powerplay.

“We took momentum in the powerplay.”

Paul Collingwood top-scored with 77 and Mustard (42) and Calum MacLeod (46) chipped in as Durham strolled home with 23 balls to spare.

However, the tone had been set by Hastings’ career-best 5-46 as Warwickshire failed to build on Jonathan Trott’s 106 in a 141-run stand with Tim Ambrose (70).

Stoneman added: “During the Twenty20s and into the 50-over competition we have been good up front and in the middle overs but we just have not quite finished things off at the end and it has cost us 20 or 30 runs (a game).

“It was nice to get that right.

“We took 8-51 at the back end which put us in a good position.

“Maybe another 20 runs might have been about a par score so we did well to restrict them the way we did.

“I was slightly concerned with 10 overs left but you always know there is a chance of wickets as they take more risks at the end. Hasto getting Trott out when he did was crucial.

“We know in this format, with the restrictions of the extra man in the circle, if you have two batsmen set towards the last 10 overs they can do real damage, but we just chipped away.”

Stoneman admitted the captaincy added to the pressure of his low scores.

He said: “It has been disappointing having that run. It is almost double when you ave the role of batsman and captain.

“Even if you arenot scoring runs you want to be winning, so when you are not scoring runs and losing it is a double blow.

“To get a few out of the middle of the bat was good.

“Nothing major has been wrong, it is just the run I have been on. You have to take the rough with the smooth.”

The game was Durham’s first at South North and their first home match away from Chester-le-Street since 2008.

Stoneman was impressed by the hosts.

He added: “Credit to South North, they put on a good show and a good quality pitch.

“There was a decent crowd in (1,703) and thankfully the weather held out.”